Willow held the sword tightly in her hands and swung wildly. Angel
groaned loudly at her inexperience, he was tired of showing the red
head the same thing over and over. He had no clue it would be so hard
to teach one girl how to use a sword for a battle. The evening before
Cordelia had had a vision, the vision being precise for once. There
was a Malfert Demon that had set up shop recently and needed to be
destroyed., and the only way to kill was by beheading. Exclusively by
a red headed witch who would bless the broad sword before
decapitating the demon, mind you. So Cordelia suggested that they
call Willow and ask her to do it.

Now here Angel stood trying to instruct her, he wasn't used to
working with someone who had a problem lifting a 20 pound sword. With
Willow it took all her strength just to raise it. Normally for Angel
patience was a virture, but right now he wanted to kick virtue in the
ass.

"Damnit Willow, can't you get anything right?" he yelled loudly.

Willow just stood and stared at him in shock for a moment then
dropped the sword to the ground.

"Ya know what Angel, find yourself another girl for the job. Because
I quit!" She kicked at the sword but it didn't move much.

"Quitter!" Angel yelled after her as she headed out of the Hyperion's
front doors.

Cordelia and Wesley had heard the yelling and came out from the back
office.

"What's going on?" Cordelia asked.

Angel picked up the sword with ease and lay it down on the couch, "I
yelled at her." he said embarassed.

Wesley and Cordy exchanged a glance. "Why?" Wesley asked.

"It's just difficult for me to teach someone who isn't..."

"Buffy." Cordelia interupted.

"Stronger." He corrected.

"Men." Cordelia huffed and headed outside to find Willow.

Wesley was still standing there looking at Angel

"What?"

"What did you say to her?" The former watcher asked.

"I called her a quitter, and asked her why she couldn't get anything
right." He answered.

Wesley's mouth formed an O and not a word was spoken between the two
men.

Twenty minutes later Willow entered back into the hotel, sans
Cordelia. She had a determined look in her eyes as she headed to the
couch for the sword. Though it tugged her arm down she held onto it
tightly.

"Show you whose a quitter." She mumbled to herself and headed out the
door.

"Where are you going?" Angel asked stepping out of his office.

"To slay a demon!" Willow called over her shoulder.

"Shit!" Angel quickly ran to the back where the tunnel access was.
With hope he'd get to the Malfert Demon before Willow could.  At
least to work him over a little, tire him out. He owed her that much
for yelling at her.

The demons razor sharp talons slashed through the air barely missing
Willow's face. All Angel could do was stand and watch. The demon had
thrown up an invisible barrier around he and his opponent.
Willow hauled the sword up and aimed for the demons neck.

"Hold tight Willow!" Angel called to her.

She swung the sword with everything that was inside of her feeling
like her shoulders were going to be ripped out of there sockets. The
sword sailed through the air and the demon held up its left arm to
block it, and its right arm to push the witch. The sharp blade sliced
through the demons metal clad arm just as he pushed Willow. Then
magically the sword stayed in the air and continued its path of
desctruction slicing the demons head off.

At the same time Willow flew against the invisible barrier hitting
it as if it was a brick wall. Angel watched in horror as her body fell to the
ground like a rag doll. A few seconds after the demons body had oddly
disentigrated, so did the barrier. Angel rushed to Willow's side and scooped
her up in his arms. He thanked whoever that may be listening that he could hear
heartbeat. Willow groaned when Angel stood, "Shh, Willow it's okay.
Your gonna be okay."

Angel entered through the back entrance of the hotel. Willow had
fallen asleep in his arms on the way back.
All he wanted to do was lie her down and tend to her. 'Buffy's gonna
kill me' He thought to himself as he finally lay Willow down on his
bed. He pushed the hair out of her face, "Then Xander's gonna
resurrect me and kill me." He told the sleeping girl.

(2/?)
Angel stood at the foot of the bed and for the first time realized
what a true beauty she was.  He quickly shook his head and retreated
from the room to inform the others.
Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn were standing patiently in the lobby.

"Well?" Cordelia asked first.

"Demons dead, but Willow's hurt." He anwered.

"Bad?" Wesley asked.

"She fell asleep on the way back. Demon was tough, he put up a
barrier so I couldn't help her. I don't know how she did it." He
observed.

"Will's a tough one." Cordelia said proudly.

  Her head felt like a hot air balloon floating in the sky. Her eyes
were out of focus when she heard a man say something she couldn't
quite make out.
When things came into focus she saw 4 sets of eyes staring at her.
Willow tried to sit up but the handsome man with the brown eyes
instructed her not to. Suddenly, her eyes examined the surrounding
area as she settled back down.

"Where am I?" She asked. "And please, I'm not trying to sound rude,
but who are you people?"

"You don't know us?" Cordelia asked.

"Should I?"

All Cordelia Chase could do was nod her head yes.

"Do you know who you are?" Angel asked emphasizing the word you.

"Anna Dumont." She answered without hesitation.

Angel looked over his shoulder at his three friends. He didn't know
what to say or do, yup, he was definitely at a loss for words.

"Actually, " Wesley began after a brief moment of silence, "we know
you as Willow Rosenburg from Sunnydale, California." He was hoping
that by telling her that it would trigger something, but it didn't.

"I don't understand." Willow shook her head.

"You really don't know who we are?" Angel asked, looking for some
sign.

Willow shook her head, "I'm sorry no. Last thing I remember was
crawling into bed after finally getting..." a flow of tears suddenly
came out of her eyes as she paused, "My baby, Oh my gawd my baby! I
was putting her to bed, and next thing I know I woke up here."

Angel took her hand and began to rub the outside of her hand with his
thumb, "Shh, I'm sure everything's all right. I'm sure your baby is
fine."

Trying to change the subject he smiled brightly, "I'm Angel," he
began, "and behind me there is Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn." Each of
them raising a hand as Angel introduced them.

"This is all very confusing." Willow sighed.

"Agreed." Cordelia piped in.

   Very confusing indeed, Angel couldn't figure out how it had
happened unless the demon had performed some type of spell before
dying.

Willow wiped the tears from her eyes, "So am I in California then?"

"Los Angeles to be exact." Angel told her.

She couldn't help but smile, "Wow, I've always wanted to visit LA.
Never really had the money."

"Wil...I mean Anna." Angel corrected, "What year is it?"

"2000"

"Where are you from?"

"Camdenton, Missouri."

"How old are you?"

"23, how old are you?" She smirked. "Sorry I was never good at
answering questions without a few of my own."

Angel just shook his head, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." She challenged.

Wesley cleared his throat and motioned for the others join him out of
the room.

"We're going go , give you a little time."

Angel nodded at him and then turned his attention back to Willow, or
the girl with the face of Willow.

"So how old are you?" She asked.

"242 years old."

"What are you a demon or something?" She asked unfazed.

"Vampire." Angel was definitely taken aback

"Cool." The red head chuckled.

(3/?)

Cordelia wasn't exactly sure as she dialed the number that the girl
in Angel's bedroom had given her. It was worth a shot though, and
that's really all the gang had at that point. Angel had been adamant
about not contacting Sunnydale until they figured everything out. He
didn't want any unessacary worrying and then again the thought about
being killed by Buffy and Xander didn't settle too well with him.
Cordelia listened to the phone ring four times and just as she was
about to hang up a waivering voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, my names Cordelia Cha.." before she could even finish her name
she was cut off.

"Cordelia!" the person on the other end of the line shrieked. "Thank

gawd , it's Willow."

"Wow," Cordelia said surprised. "I mean um, hey Willow."

"Cordelia what's going on? I'm here in a one bedroom apartment in
Missouri. In another persons body, there's a baby that won't stop
crying. Believe me when I say I've tried everything with the poor
kid, but she must know I'm not her mother, and to top it all off I
have blue hair." Willow rambled.

"Blue hair?" Cordelia stiffled a laugh.

"Baby blue hair, who in there right mind dyes their hair baby blue?"

"Willow, calm down.." Cordelia began to explain to Willow what was
going on.

"So somehow me and this Anna person have switched bodies, this isn't
funny last time there was body switching it involved Buffy and a very
angry Faith." Willow reminded her.

Angel had finally emerged from his room a smile on his face and he
was laughing. Laughing?

'Oh no, he slept with her.' was the first thought that ran through
Cordelia's mind.

"Angel, Willow's on the phone. The real Willow that is."

Angel quickly grabbed the phone from Cordelia, "Hey! You could have
asked politely." She scolded.

"Willow?"

"Angel, some mess huh?"

"Defnitely, Willow I just want to say how sorry I am for yelling at
you earlier, I just..."

"It's okay Angel, I kind of understand." Willow interupted him.

Angel could hear a baby crying in the background. "Are you okay?" his
voice full of concern.

"Yeah, I'm just a little confused is all."

"Okay listen, I'm gonna get you a plane ticket. Either I or Cordelia
will call you back with the information okay?"

"Alright, in the meantime I'll look for some reason why me and this
girl would have switched bodies." Willow sighed.

"Okay, take care of yourself. We'll call you soon."

"See ya Angel."

"You too Willow." With that Angel hung up the phone.

"Cordelia..."

"I'm on it, just give me that lovely credit card of yours and I'm
reserving the tickets." Cordelia smiled holding out her hand.

Angel just shook his head and fished in his back pocket for his
wallet. "I want her here even if it has to be first class tickets."
He instructed handing her his gold card.
Angel retreated back to his bedroom to talk more to Anna.

"The curse!" she exclaimed as Angel entered.

"What?"

"Why didn't I think of it earlier?" She questioned only herself.

"Anna, what curse?" He sat down next to her on the bed.

Anna sat up straight and took in a deep breath. "Last year I met this
guy, his name was Mel. He's Anissa's father. Anyway, he was into
demons and all that stuff. He summoned this weird demon just for the
hell of it. The demon was pissed, said something about being summoned
by such a low being was a mockery. He killed Mel and cursed me. I'm
still not sure what the curse was but all I know is that since then
I've been pretty much living in povertyville. It's hard trying to be
a single mom, fast food just doesn't pay enough ya know?"

Angel listened intently to Anna's story, trying to figure out the
connection.
"So maybe when the demon died he cursed Willow with the same thing.
Only it switched your bodies?" He was guessing, but it was the best
damned explanation he could come up with.

"Maybe. So did you get ahold of Willow?"

Angel nodded, "Anissa is fine." he assured her. "Willow will take
good care of her."

(4/?)

Willow had searched all over the small apartment before Cordelia
had called, and to no avail found no sign of there being any
connection between she and Anna. Now, she couldn't relax.
She ran her hands through the blue hair that took place of her red.
She looked over at Annissa who seemed to be carrying on a
conversation with a teddy bear. "Your mother certainly has an
interesting way of expressing herself."  Annissa turned her attention
to Willow.
"Not that I'm against dying your hair, you should see how many times
my ex boyfriend dyed his hair. It's just that it's not me. Look at
me." She said dramatically, "I'm talking to a what, 4 month old baby?
Ack!"
   Willow decided to make another round of exploring the small home.
There were pictures everywhere, pictures of Anna's family mostly. A
large picture of Annissa hung by the door. Willow ran her fingers
over the large picture and smiled, then glanced back at the child.
She shook her head of the happy motherly thought and changed the
subject in her head. Idea. "Draconian Katra spell!" she said
excitedly.  She headed for the phone, "Oh please be home , I know you
hate me but I need you." She quickly dialed the number from memory.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end answered.
"Hey Tara, it's Willow I think I'm gonna need your help."
It was definitely disturbing to know that some other girl had taken
up residence in her body.   'Poor girl must be scared too' Willow
thought while she listened to Tara stammer.

Anna popped another piece of popcorn in her mouth, "So here I was
covered in mud, my dad's yelling at me and my brother to catch the
turkey. My sisters yelling at my dad calling him a murderer, and of
course my mom took pictures."
Without thinking Angel grabbed a handful of popcorn.  There was
something about this girl, or maybe it was because she looked like
Willow; whom he'd never really gotten to know all that well. He
wasn't sure, all he knew is that he was enjoying the stories that
Anna was telling him of her childhood.
"So don't mind my nosiness but where are your parents?"
Anna seemed to search the ceiling for an answer, "Living it up in
Florida, cliched as it may sound. They moved there 3 years ago, I
don't want to bug them. They are very happy retirees, although if it
wasn't for them I wouldn't have a phone. They kind of insisted that
they put the phone under there name and pay for it so they can keep a
hold of me." She smiled.
"So Annissa's okay?" She asked  changing the subject.
"Willow seemed to be handling everything okay. She didn't say that it
was out of control or anything." He patted her hand, that's when he
felt that all familiar surge.
The two locked eyes for a brief moment. Only what Angel saw in front
of him was Willow, not Anna. Her large green eyes, her silky red hair
and her sweet sweet smile. He wanted to grab her and kiss her, give
her a kiss she'd never forget, but again she wasn't Willow. He had to
remind himself that. He took away the his hand which was still
covering Anna's hand with a quickness.
A cocky smile played across her face, "You like her?"
"What?"
"Oh yeah you like her, you've got that hand-stuck-in-the-cookie-jar
look." Anna teased.
Angel opened his mouth to speak and to defend himself, but not a
damned word came out.
"Don't you want anything more than popcorn? Pizza maybe?" He quickly
changed the subject.
Anna stuffed her face with a few more pieces, "Nope, I'm a popcorn
fiend. I work in fast food you don't exactly want fast food after
your around it all day."
Angel chuckled and shook his head, "I'm betting you are one crazy
person to be around."
"You don't know the half of it."

Cordelia soon  poked her head into the room.
"Hey, I just got off the phone with Willow."
She turned her attention to the red head, " She's gonna pack some of
the babies things and then it's off to the airport."
"Thank you Cordelia." Anna smiled.
"So Gunn and I are going to pick her up at LAX later on this
evening." Cordelia continued. It was odd for her to look at the face
of Willow seeing as she had just got off the phone with her.
"Hurry back!" Angel shouted as she walked away.
"Be careful!" Anna's voice followed.

Gunn entered into the hotel holding a car seat, "We're back!" he
called.
Cordelia slapped his arm, "Shush, sleeping baby."
Angel exited quickly from the back office. His mouth dropping when he
saw the strange girl before him.
"Hey." was all Willow managed to get out.
"She has a bone through her nose?" Angel noted out loud cocking his
head to one side.
"You don't know the half of it." Willow shook her head.
Gunn sat the car seat down next to Angel, "There ya go." he
smiled. "Have fun buddy." he patted him on the back.
Like a flash Gunn was gone.
"Willow's gonna stay with me tonight." Cordelia informed.
"I'm not quite ready to see myself I guess. Oh and I called Tara and
she's coming tomorrow morning to help do a spell for a Draconian
Katra." She explained.
"I asked her not to tell anyone else though, not yet at least."
Angel gave her a knowing nod, he knew she didn't want anyone in
Sunnydale knowing about this anymore than he did.
Willow lay the Annissa's diaper bag next to Angel's feet. "Right now
all I want to do is sleep though. I never want to fly for that long
with a baby, ever again."

(5/?)

Cordelia had generously given up her bed to Willow for the evening,
and it wasn't that the bed was uncomfortable, but she definitely
couldn't sleep. All her thoughts were muddled of reasons why this had
happened to her. Was it a destiny type thing? Was it just being in
the wrong place at the wrong time? As she continued her staredown
with the ceiling she heard the phone ring.

Cordelia knocked and then entered the room, "Phone for you Will."
she said handing the cordless to her.
"It's Anna." she whispered.

Shocked a bit Willow took the phone from her. "Hello?"

"Hi." She heard her own voice say back to her. "Listen, I know it's
probably weird for you to talk to me. Hell it's weird to hear myself
answer the phone,but I think we need to talk. I'm not sure why, call
it instinct or something like that."

"Okay." Wilow said.

"I talked to Angel today about how we could have been switched." Anna
began. "He told me that you fought a malfert demon, which happens to
be the same demon that my boyfriend Mel had summoned. The demon was
mad that he'd done it and killed Mel and cursed me. So we were
thinking that it was the same demon and he was going to curse you,
but somehow things went kooky and he somehow switched us instead."

"That's better than any reason I had." Willow told her.
Then came the first uncomfortable pause, "So the
katra should work. Did Angel tell you about the Katra?"

"He told me that it will switch our bodies back."

"That's the just of it. My friend Tara is coming tomorrow morning to
help me make it. It requires two people and she's helped me make one
before."

"This has happened before?" Anna squeaked.

"Not to me, to a friend of mine."

"Oh good, cuz I was gonna say. Damn girl you got some bad luck."
Willow chuckled at the comment, "You don't even know."

There was a short pause, "So did you know that Angel likes you?" Anna
asked out of the blue, she was really just trying to make
conversation. It had been ages since she'd just chatted with someone
on the telephone. Deep inside she hoped that after this was over with
she could call the people in LA her friends.

"What?" Willow nearly yelled.

Anna laughed loudly, "I can tell it, the way he looks at me, I mean
you."

"That's impossible Anna, trust me."

"Why do you think that? You are very pretty and well I don't really
know you but I imagine you are a good person."

"Thanks Anna."

"You didn't answer me." Anna said after another moment of pause.

"About what?"

"About why you think it's impossible for Angel to like you?"

"Because I'm Willow." she answered.

"That's not an answer ya' know? But I guess it'll do." She chuckled
into the phone.

"It'll have to cuz I can't really explain it. Anna I have a question?"

"Shoot."

"Blue hair, a bone through your nose and a tattoo of big bird on your
ankle and the peircing , um, down there. Why?"

Anna laughed too loudly forgetting that Annissa was asleep in her car
seat. "What can I say I'm a non-conformist." she said, "No really, it
all happened with Mel. He took me out and got the tat and the
peircings, and as for the blue hair I was just bored with my normal
blond, and thought that baby blue would be different."

"That it is." Willow said running her hands through the aformentioned
hair.

The two soon began talking like they needed to get to know each
other. Everything from music and movies to taste in men was covered.

"Oh my gosh, it's 4am!" Willow exclaimed looking at the clock.

"So, " Anna yawned, "you gonna tell me now why you think that it's
impossible for Angel to want you?"

"Anna! I don't know it's just he's Buffy's." Willow answered.

"Willow, timeline check. That was two years ago as I remember you
telling me. And the man is extremely hot!"

"I know that, trust me I know that. I had the biggest crush on him
back in high school." Willow sighed.

"And he has the cutest ass." Anna said.

Willow yawned once more, "Anna?"

"Yeah?"

"As much as I'd love to continue talking to you, and about Angel's
butt, I really need to sleep. A sleepy Willow is a bitchy Willow."
She chuckled.

"Okay, thanks for talking to me Willow. I really appreciate it."

"It was fun, good night."

"Good morning." Anna giggled as she hung the phone up.

next

back